FP4Party – Over Here/Over There

Okay, so things are weird right now, nothing seems right, days, time, rules all have no meaning anymore. But there is one thing that has kept me going, and that is my photography. When I learned that there would be an FP4Party is June, I felt pleased. Sadly the party never came into being, but that didn’t stop me from having a party for one. I had to come up with some sort of idea of what I would do for the party. Thankfully I had a couple of rolls of Ilford FP4+ in medium format hanging around from a project that never got off the ground due to this whole thing. Plus it again gives me a chance to flex those muscles of creativity outside of shooting for some sort of review purpose.

I believe that when we leave a place a part of it goes with us, and part of us remains. Go anywhere in these halls, when it is quiet and just listen. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all of our conversations, every thought and word we’ve exchanged. Long after we are gone, our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains.

The above quote is fairly dear to my heart; it comes from one of my favourite Science Fiction TV series, Babylon 5. It is spoken by G’Kar twice, first during the fifth season of the show as he prepares to leave the titular station and again during the single entry in the “Lost Tales” series. While trying to work from home, I have been using these series as escapism and provided me with the needed idea on how to approach the recent FP4Party. The Lost Tales: Voices in the Dark is split into two episodes, Over Here and Over There two separate yet connected ‘episodes’. “Over Here” dealt with a situation on Babylon 5 while “Over There” took place on the trip to Babylon 5. I decided that those two titles made a perfect inspiration for the party. The “Over Here” roll I shot entirely inside my home, everything is in its usual place, while my “Over There” roll I shot in the neighbourhood of Milton where I live. Everything I shot using the Mamiya m645 camera, two lenses the 150/3.5 for “Over Here” and 80/2.8 for “Over There” and developed in Adox FX-39 II.

Over Here
The trying to work from the home situation that I have been in since the middle of March has certainly helped me appreciate the condo that Heather and I have made into our home. Sure it’s not the biggest or fanciest place out there, but it is home. For the first roll, I photographed some of the items around the house, some in their native environment others I moved due to space constraints. The trouble is that I decided to work with my 150mm f/3.5 lens, which doesn’t exactly have the best close focus ability, so I had to be reasonably distant from the items. I should have stuck with the 80mm lens on these as I don’t have a macro lens for the m645, something to look for in the future, I guess.

Over There
With the first roll subjects being human-made, I decided that for the ‘over there’ roll I would shoot things in nature. Having found a lot of fantastic walking trails through the back part of my neighbourhood, I headed out to enjoy a sunny day and nature. While I didn’t get as many keepers on this roll, I’m still pretty happy with the results. Again I stuck to the closeup theme that I used for the first roll, but this time worked with my 80mm lens to get a bit more close focus ability. Again while not a Macro lens, it did the job well.

While there wasn’t an official party, I still enjoyed holding myself to a regular schedule. Not to mention making use of my 150mm lens and trying out something a little different than my usual wide-angle shooting, plus taking a closer look at the items around the house. There is a certain comradery to a group event, but these days things are weird, changing daily, and certain things just fall through the cracks. But hey, as long as I can get out and shoot, it’s a little sense of normalcy.